Khalid Abdalla

Khalid Abdalla was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Egyptian parents. He grew up in London, before beginning his studies at Cambridge University and then training in Paris at École Philippe Gaulier. He speaks English, French and Arabic.

In 2007, Abdalla performed the lead role of Amir in The Kite Runner, for director Marc Forster. He previously collaborated with Paul Greengrass in 2005, portraying Ziad Jarrah in United 93. Abdalla is currently working as a producer and lead actor on an independent feature film directed by Tamer El-Said, In the Last Days of the City, filming in Cairo, Beirut and Baghdad.

Abdalla's non-film work includes leading roles in Tamburlaine, at The Rose Theatre; Cue Deadly, at Riverside Studios; Bedbound, for which he shared the Judge's Award for Acting at the National Student Drama Festival in 2003; and BBC Radio 3's The Incomplete Recorded Works of a Dead Body, winner of the 2008 Prix Italia for Best Drama. He is on the board of the U.K.'s National Student Drama Festival, a fellow of the Serpentine Gallery's Edgware Road Project and a co-founder of Zero Production, an independent film production house in Cairo.